Gold production to increase in 2017

The Minerals Commission has disclosed to Citi Business News that its projection for gold production this year will be one of the best the industry has witnessed in recent times.

According to the commission, mining companies in the country have lined up a series of activities aimed at ramping up operations this year, hence will invest more funds into the industry.

Already, President Nana Akufo-Addo has announced that Randgold’s partnership with Anglogold Obuasi mine will commence this year after the agreement to invest in the mine was canceled last year.

Speaking to Citi Business News on the expected activities in the industry, the Chief Executive Officer of the Minerals Commission, Dr. Toni Aubynn was hopeful thousands of jobs will be created for Ghanaians this year.

He stated that the companies have developed modalities to cushion them from shocks on the world market that negatively impact the price of the commodity.

“Most of the mining companies have learnt to withstand the cost and price dynamics much better than before. So most now understand the cost of production,” he said.

He pointed out that the development has led to companies making huge investment ahead of the 2017 production year, which is good for Ghana’s economy.

“We expect 2017 to be a positive year. We expect that production will go up. I will not be able to tell you exactly how much but we expect production to go up slightly above 2016 figures,” he said.

Sounding more hopeful, Dr. Aubynn stated that companies such as Asanko Gold Mines, Goldfields and Gold Star Resources have all shown signs of increasing production through injection of new investment.

“…You would have Asanko Gold now ramping up, fortunately Goldfields after its [preliminary] agreement with government has now secured 1.4 billion [dollars] resources to invest in the Damang project. If they are able to go into actual production within the year then it means that production is likely to go up,” he said.